A soldier's kindnessEvery soldier has a story to tell, and every story is different. Heroic deeds manifest themselves in many ways. Courage, sacrifice, bravery, leadership - these are the ones most often described. But the Wall Street Journal's edition on Thanksgiving tells of another type of heroism from World War II, a heroic deed based in kindness. Journal staff reporter Bryan Gruley tells the story of Lt. John Withers, a black officer in charge of an all-blac...

A season to rememberAfter 13 weeks, the 2003 high school football season came to a close last weekend. Hundreds of high school student-athletes began preparations days before the season openers the first week of September to establish fundamentals and season goals: A winning season. A berth in the postseason football playoffs. A conference championship. A state championship. We saw some of those goals accomplished, and at the same time experienced a lot more this...

A good day in health careMonday was just a normal day in the medical field in Russellville. Children with the sniffles and other ailments crowded the pediatrics section at the Millard-Henry Clinic. The emergency room at Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center took care of the usual problems that come through the door every day. Blood tests, X rays, CT scans and other tests were performed. Physicians, surgeons and specialists took care of their patients, as usual. All in ...

Once more, from the top"Let's put our differences aside and give and take." A noble sentiment, indeed, for the members of the Pope County Quorum Court, as described by Pope County Judge Jim Ed Gibson. Unfortunately, county residents should withhold the commendation Gibson sought for the JPs' hard work, since the give and take took place out of the public eye. The JPs worked long and hard Monday night trying to hammer out a budget for 2004, but found only disagreemen...

Invest now, benefit laterBy James Jefferson Arkansas taxpayers soon can expect to pay more for goods and possibly services, an investment in public education from which some returns could take up to 50 years to mature. Payoff is expected much sooner in other areas, such as better student performance from expanding preschool programs, though results from one of the biggest investments - raising teacher salaries - could be years away. As a December special session appro...

Black Friday turns goldenSome retailers call the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday" because it's the day they hope will turn the red ink into black on the year's ledger books. It's a day of early-bird specials and sales, sales, sales. In the River Valley, as in the state and nation, stores were busy and shoppers were buying. Friday was a hopeful turnaround from more than a year of economic uneasiness. Plant closings and job losses have been in the news for even lon...

Focus lost on victoryHistory is full of missed opportunities and the problems that result from them. A new example is becoming apparent in Afghanistan. It has been two years since American forces took over the one-time home of the Taliban and their Al-Qaida manipulators. Americans received a better welcome in Kabul than in Baghdad. The Afghanis were ready to come out from under oppression of extremists in Afghanistan, and they had less fear of a resurgence, at lea...

Level field for learningFriday night football is a tradition in many Arkansas towns. The crisp night air tickles the nose, but the cold is not as noticeable for fans surrounded by friends and neighbors and fellow parents watching the players on the field, the cheerleaders on the sidelines and the band at halftime. It's much the same in all of those towns, but one part of the experience is exactly the same. When those players take the field, they'll know that the fiel...

Status quo at any priceBy James Jefferson In the year since the state Supreme Court declared Arkansas' public education system unconstitutional, legislators appear to have narrowed their possible responses to a range from doing nothing to doing whatever it takes to maintain the status quo. Raising taxes to pay for teacher raises and other education improvements appears to be a certainty, but reducing the number of school districts to avoid a billion-dollar burden to...

Giving more than thanksEbeneezer Scrooge spent a lifetime accumulating possessions, but he never found any real joy in them. It was not until he experienced a change in heart that he discovered the joy of humanity and the joy of sharing. Charles Dickens' tale of "A Christmas Carol" was a product of the grim days of the industrial revolution, but his glimpse of human nature is just as true today. Greed is still just as destructive, both those consumed by it and those...

Dallas shots still echoAs the clock moves past noon and toward 1 p.m. today, we take a moment to reflect on three shots fired four decades ago in Dallas that were heard throughout the world and continue to echo today. Between those hours, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot from a sixth-floor window in the Texas Schoolbook Depository. Less than an hour later, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, our 35th president of the United States was pronounced dead as hundred...

Trust hurt by tiny cutsDishonesty and scams don't really change much over the years. They just get dressed up in new suits and use new variations on the old tricks. Back in the late 1970s, in the relative dark ages of computers, a particularly clever thief came up with an ingenious plan. He worked as a programmer in the banking industry, if memory serves, and he used a mathematical trick to rake in his illegal money. The trick went something like this: The bank norm...

City's future now at stakeAs sure as nights turn chilly and leaves fall from trees, Russellville City Council members will find themselves in a budgetary storm come the last couple months of each year. These annual rites of fiscal passage began a few years ago when city officials faced a few needs and a few wants. At that time, they had a boatload of money in the bank and were looking at pretty rosy economic forecasts. So, the city began building. A softball park. A so...

Exporting our futureIn modern America, true power has come not from the barrel of a gun but from the end of an assembly line. Before that, the power came from a shipyard, an artisan's shop, a textile mill, or a country farm. In short, America's greatness was produced by the hands of workers who took the nation's bounty of natural resources and turned it into something useful, something that other people would buy, whether across town or across the globe. America'...

CBS caved on Reagan miniseriesBy Ron Butts I had no plans whatsoever of watching the CBS mini-series "The Reagans." Now, it appears, that no one except Showtime subscribers will get a chance to see it. CBS has backed down after protests from conservatives and decided not to broadcast the movie depicting the White House days of President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy. Saying the movie did not present a balanced view of Reagan's years in the White House, the television g...

Budget gets shot in armWhen budgetary problems arise, a little windfall certainly comes in handy. Such is the case for the city of Russellville. Faced with the prospect of fairly drastic cuts in city services, especially in public safety, the city hit it lucky when the LOPFI police and fire pension funds reported a $371,000 credit due the city's coffers. That's more money than a 1-mill property tax increase would raise. Coupled with an overall tightening of the budg...

Politics wins over policyA mother of five has a solution for the never-ending fracas in the U.S. Senate. It's as good as any we've seen. Senators who took part in the 40-hour opponent-bashing should be made to apologize for saying those bad things, then give each other a hug and a kiss. The photo opportunity would be priceless: Ted Kennedy giving Bill Frist a big bear hug and a peck on the cheek. Instead of playing nice, members of the world's greatest deliberative bo...

Tardy salute for carriersA lot of times in the newspaper world, we unfortunately will miss a thing or two. It's not intentional, and we don't have a Miss Cleo-type to make sure we catch everything or see what's coming down the road. However, it happens. October is the busiest month of the year for everyone at The Courier, primarily because it's time to finalize and publish our biggest special section of the year, Progress. Instead of looking ahead for a moment, we're ...

Criticisms don't add upAccording to Rep. Michael Lamoureux, state legislators generally have the same two reactions to Arkansas Tech University's president, Dr. Robert C. Brown. First, they see him as a genuinely nice guy. Second, they know he's going to ask for more money for Arkansas Tech. That first trait is a good one to have when the second trait is so prominently displayed. That first trait was unfortunatly taxed recently when Joel Stubblefield, the chancellor...

Tech's facts crystal clearJoel Stubblefield, chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, called it a cheap shot, but from our perspective it's just a simple fact. University presidents from around the state were at a legislative hearing last Wednesday to urge lawmakers to improve funding for higher education. Cracks appeared in what should have been a united front when the UAFS official took offense at a comment from Tech's president, Dr. Robert C. Brown. S...